New Book of Interest: The Umbrella Murder: The Hunt for the Cold War's Most Notorious Killer

 

An interesting new book is about to hit the market—pre-order only now. It is due out in July 2024.

From Ebury Publishing: 

"In 1978 the Bulgarian author and dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated by a poisoned umbrella on Waterloo Bridge in London. His murder is the most iconic killing in almost five decades of the Cold War, and no one has ever been prosecuted for it. 

"The Umbrella Murder reveals the real architect and hit man behind this spectacular killing: a spy code-named Piccadilly who worked for the Bulgarian secret service and the KGB, who has been hiding for more than forty years. 

"Written as a modern-day thriller, and drawing on an incredible thirty-year cache of original documents and recordings and never-before-seen archive material -- some not even seen by police or secret services -- this is a jaw- dropping and page-turning search for justice in the murky underworld of intelligence and across the shifting sands of spycraft. 

"Ulrik Skotte is a Danish journalist who has been chasing the truth about the umbrella murder and the mysterious agent Piccadilly for more than 25 years. He eventually managed to track down Piccadilly and met him face to face in an apartment in Austria in 2021. A month later, Piccadilly was found dead in the same apartment." 

If the Cold War turned Hot ©

There was genuine fear in Washington (and London) that the early Cold War with the Soviet Union might evolve into a Hot War. America’s CIA was charged with intelligence gathering to learn when the Soviet Union was about to attack the West. 

 

There was a significant problem: CIA needed intelligence agents behind the Iron Curtain in a position to fulfill the CIA's tasks. But thousands of men had escaped from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of World War Two to Sweden, for example, who would be willing to become intelligence agents for CIA and the British Intelligence Service (SIS). Other agents were recruited in Belgium and West Germany.

 

CIA recruited, trained, and dispatched at least 85 agents into the Baltics, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Belorussia, and the Soviet Union. Most were killed on or shortly after landing, captured, put on trial, and sentenced to death or long prison terms.

 

Respective CIA units used the form below in support of the project approval requests.

 

FORM NO. 1

 

Project Cryptonym _______________                                              Base _____________

Roof Project ______________                                                          Date _____________

Case Officer  ___________________

 

IN NARRATIVE FORM, ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS USING SEPARATE SHEETS  OF PAPER, TYPE THE NUMBERED QUESTION, AND THEN ANSWER. 

 

l. What wartime role is recommended for the project or operations? Include specific location

2. What actions must be taken to make the project or operation utilizable in time of war?

3. If it is recommended that the project should be suspended in time of war, what action is necessary for such suspension?

4. Add any comments that will contribute to the Headquarters' assessment analysis for a realistic conclusion as to whether the project or operation is one of which a military support requirement may be accepted. 

 

On the assumption that the target country will be involved in the event of a general war, check (either "x" or "✓") in the "Yes," "No," or "Probably" column. Since the answers wanted are the best judgment of the responsible case officer, positive and realistic "yes" and "no" answers are preferred. If a remark is deemed necessary, enter "Remark" and attach a separate sheet appropriately keyed to the item. Whenever the item is not applicable, enter "NA" in the "No" column.

NOTE: The phrase "In Wartime" is an inherent part of each of the following questions, 5 through 34

 

                                                                                                                        In Wartime

                                                                                                                       Yes  No  Probably

5. Will the project or operation be affected?                                     

6. Is the project specifically devised to support military operations?                                                                        

7. Does the project or operation have a potential value for support of

a. Conventional Military forces?

b. Unconventional military forces?

8. Is the project or operation (partly) (wholly) /delete one/ convertible to

support military operations?

9. Should the project or operation be (partly) (wholly) /deleted or

converted to support military operations?

10. Should the project or operation be continued with its present

objectives?

11. Will the present objectives of the project or operation Support

military operations?

12. Should the project or operation be suspended?

13. Should the project be terminated?

14. Should part of the current operations be terminated?

15. Are there any caches in place for use?

16.If the answer to 15 is "yes." have the cache records been sent to:

a. Washington?

b. London?

17. If the answer to 15 is "no," are caches required to make the

project or operation?

18. If the current operations are serviced by W/T, will such

service be available?

19. If the answer to question 18 is "no," will W/T service be available?

20. Have the personnel been instructed as to their role?

(NB: in the event some have and some have not, insert "See

Form 2" and answer for each agent.)

21. Have drop zones and landing strips been selected for use?

22. Is there a safe house that can be used by project personnel?

23. Has the cipher system been issued to project agents for use?

24. Have one-time pads been issued to project agents for use?

25. Are dead drops available for use? 

26. Are couriers  arranged for use?

27. Have agents been trained in fingerprint identification for the

establishment of bona fides?

28. Have recontact arrangements been made in event contact is lost?

29. Could the project personnel be directed by one-vay broadcasts?

30. Have the project personnel been instructed as to one-way

broadcast arrangements?

31. Could the agent personnel remain in place?

32. Would it be desirable and feasible to move the agent personnel

to another location in the target country?

33. Is it operationally feasible to brief the personnel on emergency

communications and/or recontact arrangements for action?

34. Have the records required by the memo with the subject of "

Operational Information for Vital Documents Repository", the

attachment to EG,w-29088 7been sent to Headquarters for use?

NB: If the answer to 34 is "yes," list the transmitting dispatches.)

 

 

 

 

Memorial to Monica Lovinescu and Virgil Ierunca

On 17 December 2023, a statute was inaugurated in Cotroceni, Romania, to the memory of two Radio Free Europe legends, Monica Lovinescu and Virgil Ierunca, who worked in Paris for the Romanian BD.

On November 21, 1977, Monica Lovinescu was beaten at her home in Paris. She spent four days in a hospital.The two men were never found.

President of Romania Traian Basescu said before the Parliament of Romania on December 18, 2006: "To the despair of the communist regime, Radio Free Europe was indeed what it set out to be—the speaking newspaper for Romanians everywhere. I do homage to the memory of Ghita Ionescu, Mihai Cismarescu, Noel Bernard, and Vlad Georgescu, men who fought with altruism and passion for the knowledge and utterance of the truth. I extol Monica Lovinescu and Virgil Ierunca, who, while physically in exile, continued to live daily for the Romanian people, keeping awake, through their unforgettable Free Europe broadcasts, the moral conscience of Romanians."

Virgil Ierunca died on September 28, 2006. Monica Lovinescu died on April 20, 2008.  

RFE/RL published a commentary on its internet page in April 2008: "Why does Monica Lovinescu matter?"

https://www.rferl.org/a/1109625.html

May 1952 Princeton Meeting and the Future of Political Warfare @

 

An extraordinary weekend meeting took place May 10-11, 1952, at Princeton University, New Jersey. Radio Free Europe president C.D. Jackson moderated a high-level meeting of persons from CIA, State Department, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, the National Committee for a Free Europe, and others. Jackson had apparently called for the meeting out of frustration with the Truman administration for failing to give RFE a guidance policy for its broadcasts. C.D. Jackson begin the meeting with:

 

You Washington men are in Princeton; we New Yorkers are in Princeton; the occasionally mysterious CIA people are here; the also occasionally mysterious State Department people are here; Admiral Miller, who is President of NCFE, and Bob Lang, head of Radio Free Europe, are just back from Europe. But everyone is off home field. And the reason for that was that I desperately hope that although all of us are here representing some kind of organization, at the same time I hope that the atmosphere will be such that people can say things to each other, and about someone else, and even their own organizations, with complete frankness and without any defense mechanisms being set up or hurty feelings quivering on the table. This is, I hope, a group of individual professionals of good will, interested and concerned with this problem.

 

Each participant had been given a packet of four discussion documents to be reviewed before the meeting:

 

1.     Memorandum from NCFE's Lewis Galantiere

2.     1952 William (Bill) Griffith: RFE Memorandum on Czechoslovakia

3.     Copy of magazine Economist editorial, April 26, 1952, ‘Containment Plus’

4.     Copy of April 16, 1952, newspaper column by Joseph and Stewart Alsop.

 

C.D. Jackson explained the problem to be discussed:

 

I don’t know how many times in the last 18 months, but certainly close to ten times, our guys have gone to Washington and in their very friendly and helpful talks with, say, the Central European Desk in the State Department, have said, ‘Look, tell us what you want us to do’. And those guys quite honestly said, ‘We can’t tell you what to do. Go ahead and do you want you want to do. We will tell you if you are getting into trouble.’

 

This is a U.S.A. long-term “think session”, and if it is long-term, and a political warfare will can be developed, the how-to and the coordinating, and all the other implementery things can follow reasonably smoothly. So I pitch it to you: do all of you really want to do it?  And if you do, it can be done.

 

We created one or more salient – into the hearts and minds of our friends behind the Iron Curtain, into the fears and mistrust of Communist officials behind the Curtain, and possibly created a frown on Uncle Joe’s brow. Well, then these salients have been created, and we look around for who was to close up on the flanks – the U.S. or the West – there was no one there.

 

It comes to this – that arising not merely of the operation of RFE, but out of our posture with respect to German, Eastern Europe, and Russia itself, it is felt that a gap exists in the understanding of the nature of the American objectives and that this gap contributes to apathy and weakens the dynamism of any effort to see that part of the world move without war toward a shape, which is in the American interest.

           

Adolphe Berle, director of NCFE’s Mid-European Study Center reiterated RFE’s frustration and need for specific, concrete policy guidance:

 

Something must happen – either we tell them to go home, or start composing music, or drop out of the picture, or we suggest a goal for the U.S. or West. Without that, I don’t see how the boys in Munich can make noises and increasingly make trouble there without getting themselves hated for their pains. We can no longer take ad hoc action.  All this has to go somewhere, and we must have a hypothesis. It must be flexible, but we must be able at least to have some picture of the eventual result we expect to do. That is not a “statement of objectives.”  Enough ideas have been stated, be we ought to have a blue-print, flexible, of what we expect to do.

 

Allen Dulles , CIA Deputy Director, Plans, commented, “As I said before, you have got to have a few martyrs. Some people have to get killed. I don’t want a bloody battle but I would like to see things started.  I think we have got to take a few risks. We have got to move on with caution and foresight.” 

C. D. Jackson,  concluded, “I hope that you will agree that in pulling it off, political warfare, or whatever you want to call it – which deals with the minds of men everywhere (the only thing we can get at in many places) – may be the way in which we can pull the neatest trick of this century.”

Radio Free Europe and Christmas in the Cold War Years ©

 

1951 RFE Card

Christmas played a role in both Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia broadcasts and in the Crusade for Freedom campaigns in the 1950s. 

 

Some states began their 1952 fund-raising campaigns in November and ended later than normal, due to conflicts with already planned fund-raising events. Pennsylvania, for example, with a fund-raising goal of $150,000, maintained the Crusade for Freedom through Christmas. One local newspaper article began with:

This Christmas will be just another Thursday to the children behind the Iron Curtain. There will be no Santa Claus, no toys, no days of joy and veneration. The children of Poland, Czechoslovakia and other Iron Curtain countries will spend the usual regimented day, listen to the same steady stream of Communist propaganda.

The most creative activity in the state was in Pittsburgh. On December 3, 1952, the Pittsburgh Press newspaper carried a small article and photograph with the caption: “Pittsburgh ‘Red Invader’ Surrenders—‘Russian Soldier’ Stephen Radkoff, really a Pittsburgh actor, remains grim to the end as he surrenders to Freedom Girl Miyal Harvey and Howard G. Burr, center, chairman of Western Pennsylvania Crusade for Freedom.”

The article described how local Crusade chairman Burr had arranged for Stephen Radkoff to walk around the streets of Pittsburgh in a Russian soldier’s uniform on December 2, 1952, hoping to get some sort of reaction from passersby. But, the newspaper reported that the “Red Invader” had gathered little attention from the citizens of Pittsburgh.

Chairman Burr also arranged for a “take-over” of a Pittsburgh television station WDTV at 11 P.M. by three men pretending to be “Red Agents.” The men were dressed as soldiers and seized the newscaster Dave Murray and for a few minutes, they turned the television station into a “Communist propaganda outlet" when the officer sat down before the camera and said, "Citizens! Comrades! You are about the hear the truth." After a few minutes, Murray returned to the studio and told the television audience, "The interruption was merely a dramatic demonstration of that has gone on in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Burma, China and many other countries in the world ... For the past three years they have had the chance to hear Truth. It comes to them from the Crusade for Freedom." 

Burr told the newspaper, “These were stunts, but we think that they are necessary to bring home to all of us just what is going on behind the Iron Curtain ... Our two radio stations need money to maintain. Really, not much money for all the good they do. 

Chairman Burr was also seen in a local newspaper photograph with Santa Claus and three young girls, two of whom (Claire Bletcher and Andrea McLaughlin) were holding a Crusade for Freedom poster. The caption read, "A Christmas Message of Hope." The text read, in part, "Santa's telling them Christmas is no time for happiness for children in the Iron Curtain Countries -- the greatest gift they can receive is a message of hope for the future, which the Crusade for Freedom, through Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, is trying to give them."

The article "Russian Kids Wont't Have a Santa Claus" added, "An equally important part of the campaign is educational -- letting everyone know what the Crusade is doing and how they can help." Burr also was quoted in the article as saying,

Christmas isn’t a happy day behind the Iron Curtain, but neither is any other day. We have to let those people, who are on our side in this struggle, know that we here in the United States have not forgotten them. Everyone must know what the Crusade is doing, and join in its work, either though contributions or by signing Freedom-Grams—the messages of hope which the Crusade transmits behind the Iron Curtain.

Below is a selected summary of other programs and events.

1952

On December 19, 1952, in cooperation with the Crusade for Freedom and Radio Free Europe, ABC’s nation-wide radio network broadcast the program "Caroling Through the Iron Curtain.“

1954

In December 1954, the Free Europe Press launched this Christmas card to Hungary, with this message:

Men bowed under sorrow and humiliation, men oppressed and persecuted draw from this light the patience and strength to await the day that will bring them peace, truth and freedom

1955

In 1955, the Free Europe Press sent at least two Christmas cards over the Iron Curtain via the balloon / leaflet program: one to Czechoslovakia and one to Hungary (possibly the same as the one in 1954).  It is possible that another one was sent to Poland. The Christmas card to Czechoslovakia was from a painting by the Dutch artist Rogier van der Weydon; Three kings altar, middle panel, Adoration of the Magi. The text on the reverse of the card read the same as the 1954 Christmas card to Hungary, with perhaps an additional sentence:

Men bowed under sorrow and humiliation, men oppressed and persecuted draw from this light the patience and strength to await the day that will bring them peace, truth and freedom. On the threshold of the New Year, we bow before God and renew within ourselves love for our neighbour.

It would appear that the Free Europe Press used the same message in the 1954 and 1955 cards launched by balloon--that would make some sense as the message was, in fact, the same to all three countries, to which balloons were sent.

In 1955, RFE broadcast an Advent service of the Czech Moravian Brethren Church that included songs from the choir and congregation under the direction of Rev. Frank D. Svoboda, pastor of the church in Taylor, Texas.

Also in 1955, RFE broadcast the Christmas message to Eastern Europe of President Eisenhower, who said, “The American people recognize the trials under which you are suffering; join you in your concern for the restoration of individual liberty; and share with you your faith that right in the end will prevail to bring you once again among the free nations of the world.”  Eisenhower’s message was heavily criticized by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who called it, “Crude Interference.”

1956

Twelve Hungarian refuges living in the USA recorded 30 and 60 second messages at RFE’s New York office for broadcast to Hungary. Some of the messages were in code: “This is from Black Bear to the Red Forest.” If the message was heard, word was sent back with, “We heard the melody on the piano.”

1958

Newspapers around the United States in December 1958 carried a photograph of 7-year-old Irena Dubicka of Brooklyn, New York, behind a Radio Free Europe microphone recording a “greeting to the children of Poland on behalf of youngsters in America” that would be broadcast by RFE on Christmas Eve as part a special holiday program. 

Additional programs to Poland included a broadcast by the Polish Boy Scouts in New York and a Polish Choir in London. RFE broadcast folklore, carols, and interviews with Christmas shoppers in London and New Work—“A potent reminder of the good things to buy in the capitalist countries.”

Listeners in Hungary heard folk songs, a children’s play from the Hungarian High School in Munich, and a special Christmas play performed by Hungarian émigré actors in New York.

Bulgarian émigrés in New York recorded old folklore and Christmas songs that were broadcast to Bulgaria. RFE also broadcast a special Christmas program entitled “Greetings to Jammers.”

President Eisenhower’s annual Christmas message was broadcast over Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and was not jammed.

1960

President-elect John F. Kennedy sent Christmas wishes to Eastern Europe via RFE in December 1960.

In 1962, for Christmas, RFE broadcast

·    Pope John XXIII’s Christmas mass and message.

·    A new play by children of Hungarian refugees in Germany to let Hungarians know that their language is not lost to new generations now living outside the country.

·    A Romanian jazz band that had escaped through East Berlin in September.

·   Special programs to Greek Catholics in Czechoslovakia and to orthodox members in Romania and Bulgaria.  

1966  

The official Christmas song for RFE was Kate Smith's "Christmas Eve in My Home Town." The song also was played over American Forces Radio Network for the military stationed outside the United States, the Voice of America, and domestic college and commercial radio stations.

 

 

 

1981

In 1981, after martial law was declared in Poland and communications to the West were cut off, RFE broadcast Christmas messages to friends and families over RFE’s “Telephone Bridge to Poland” from Poles living in Germany, Austria, Britain, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. There were two daily 45-minute programs with 120 to 145 telephone messages per program.

Activities of the Ukrainian Underground (Resistance), 1944 - 1950 ©

The following selected CIA chronology is taken from an undated, declassified, internal document (presumably 1951):

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainian: Українська повстанська армія, UPA) was created in 1942-1943 for the purpose of fighting the Nazis and for the protection of the Ukrainian population. It is the military force of the underground government of the Ukrainian Supreme Council of Liberation (UHVR). The UPA represents the only important resistance group operating in the Ukrainian SSR.

The activities of the Ukrainian underground were and are conducted in practically all phases of life. Because of the topography and character of the western areas of Ukraine, these activities were and are more intense and systematic in Western Ukraine (the Mountains, VOLHYN - in general, west of the DNIEPER River) than in other areas. In the beginning, these activities were conducted by all possible means and methods, from armed frontal attacks by the UPA, to disruptive penetration and infiltration of the Communist Party and the Red Army.

Among the victims of the URA ambushes are some outstanding Soviet leaders:

1944 - the UPA ambushed and mortally wounded Soviet Marshall VATUTIN.

March 1947 - UPA. men attacked and killed Lt. General Karol SWIERCZEWSKI, Vice Minister of Defense of Poland (the "General. Walter" of the Spanish Civil War)

1948 - The UPA killed Lt. General MOSKOLENKO, a high-ranking MVD officer. The representatives of the UHVR claim that 35,000 officers and non-commissioned officers of the MVD and MGB have fallen at the hands of the UPA during the period 1945 to January 1951.

1945, 46, 47, 48 - In the STANISLAV Oblast, partisan groups existed in large numbers. (Airing 1945, 46, 47, and 48, many Ukrainians were arrested by the MVD. A state farm in STANISLAV region was attacked by a number of partisan troops in the Summer of 1947. All the buildings were burned, as well as all supplies that could not be carried away. Other attacks are mentioned in the report.

1945 -47 - Partisan activity in the CARPATHIAN region. Source mentions attacks on Soviet Communist Party officials at State Farms in the STRYJ area and the CZERNOWITZ oblast, and states that the movement was strongest in areas of LVOV, STANISLAV, DROHOBYCH, PRZEMYSL, and TERNOPOL.

1946-47 - frequent attacks by partisans upon State property were carried out in STANISLAV Oblast, Western Ukraine

1947-48 - an UPA unit composed of three companies battles with Soviet forces for control of LEMKIVTSI area. Also UPA. skirmishes with Soviet forces in various localities in the Western oblasts.

1948 November - an MVD dragnet in NIKOLAYEV (4658N-3200E); uncovered a partisan headquarters. With the exception of a few anti-Soviet leaflets and a printing press, the entire headquarters was evacuated in time. 

1948- small but numerous anti-Communist partisan bands have been operating along the Polish-USSR border, approximately 30 miles west of LVOV. These bands actively engaged in armed encounters with Soviet Security Forces. 

1949 - on 30 December 1949, the MOB Minister of State Security of the Ukrainian SSR, It. Gen. M. KOVALCHUK issued a proclamation to all resistance members to return peacefully to their normal occupation under the promise of a general amnesty.:

ORDER OF THE MINISTER OF STATE SECURITY OF THE UKRAINIAN SSE

Regarding the Release from Criminal Responsibility of all Members of the Remnants of the Defeated Ukrainian Nationalist Bands in the Western Oblasts of the Ukraine SSR who voluntarily appear before the Organs of the Soviet Government for the Purpose of Unconditional Surrender. No. 312,  30 December 1949, City of Kiev

In the Spring of 1950, when it was seen that this appeal had failed to make any impression, strong large-scale repressive measures were undertaken throughout Ukraine. In some areas, detachments of 1,000 to 5,000 MGB troops were used in individual operations to clean up the district. In one district, this sweep lasted about ten days. In others, they were repeated several times within a period of weeks.

Excerpts from a declassified April 1953 CIA Internal Report entitled “Ukrainian Resistance”

 

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was created in 1942-1943 for the purpose of fighting the Nazis and for the protection of the Ukrainian population. It is the military force of the underground government of the Ukrainian Supreme Council of Liberation (UHVR). The UPA represents the only important resistance group operating at present in the Ukrainian SSR. 

 

The numerical strength of the Ukrainian Underground Resistance Movement today is considerably reduced from what it was at the close of World War II, when it numbered in the tens of thousands and even, according to some figures, 100,000 active armed members.

A fair estimate of the number of illegal-living armed partisans within the Western Oblasts of Ukraine is 1,000 men, and it is certain that many more live legally and maintain some sort of contact with the illegal-living underground units. 

 

It is anticipated that by Fall of 1953, the CIA will have been able to establish the basis of its future relationship with the Ukrainian underground. 

 

Ukrainian Resistance Forces Killed in Action:

 

“The following is a compilation of known insurgents killed in Ukraine between 1944 and 1950. These figures are not complete, but will give some indication of the amount of underground activity which took place during this period:

 

Area                                        1944    1945    1946    1947    1948    1949    1950

 

Kozlovski Raion                       26         7          3         13         4                  

Mikulinetski                             28       34          8         11          8                  

Veliko-Borkovski Raion           22       37         21        8           8                  

Veliko-Glubochetsk Raion       43       40         37        14        16                  

Zalozhtsevski Raion                 40       72         34        9          23

Zborovski Raion                       34       105       13        7           5              

Bukachevski Raion                                                                                5         3

Burshtyanksi Rion                                                                                 2         1                               

Peremyshlyani Raion                                                                             8         2

Bogatinski Raion                                                                                  10        6

Vilaivski Raion                                                                                       8        1

 

“Armed clashes with Soviet Security Forces took place in the following areas. In each case an average of five UPA partisans were involved: Drohobych Raion, Pidbuzh Raion, Samborski Raion, Turka Raion, Strilkiv Raion, Rozhnitiv Raion, Wygoda Raion.”